Democratic Republic of the Congo

One of the largest and least developed countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ranked 175th of 189 countries on the 2020 Human Development Index. DRC is now the largest hunger crisis in the world in absolute numbers. Hunger and conflict fuel one another, with armed conflict and widespread displacement prevailing for the past 25 years and multiple other crises compounding DRC’s humanitarian challenges.

Populations in large swathes of eastern DRC have been living with conflict and displacement for much of the past two-and-a-half decades. This very often takes the form of ever-more fragmented armed groups preying on civilians and preventing them from accessing their fields. North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri are the provinces where war and unrest have been the most protracted. In recent years Tanganyika in the south east and the central Kasai provinces have also been hit. Countrywide, more than 5 million people have fled their homes and lost their means of livelihood. Three out of every four internally displaced people live with host families, many of whom were already just scraping by before taking in strangers in need.

The number of acutely food-insecure people stands at 27.3 million, making access to food a daily struggle for a significant part of the Congolese population. An estimated 3.3 million children are acutely malnourished.

More than 900,000 Congolese nationals are refugees in neighbouring countries while DRC, already struggling with internal conflict, hosts more than half a million people notably refugees from Burundi, Central African Republic and South Sudan.

What WFP is doing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Crisis response: WFP’s emergency crisis response currently covers seven of the most populous and conflict-affected provinces – North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Kasai, Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental and Tanganyika. A significant scale-up of WFP activities was required to reverse the deepening hunger crisis and WFP’s strengthened field operations yielded substantial results by enabling the organisation to reach 6.9 million beneficiaries in 2020 with lifesaving food and nutrition assistance. In 2021, WFP is targeting 8.7 million people.
Ebola: WFP has helped reduce the propagation of the Ebola virus by providing food to Ebola patients and to those who have come into contact with them, and by providing crucial logistical services, including trucks and air transportation, which enable responders to reach new or remote outbreak areas quickly. WFP also launched a school feeding programme in the affected areas to address the needs of the population through a more holistic approach and build trust and positive engagement.
Support for smallholder farmers: WFP in partnership with FAO, UNHCR and UNICEF works with returnees, IDPs, refugees and local communities to build assets that improve resilience to shocks, promote self-reliance and economic recovery. These joint programs help smallholder farmers to improve production and trading capacities, provide trainings on agricultural techniques, literacy to promote women’s empowerment, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure. Small-scale livelihood activities are also being developed with refugees from Central African Republic and host communities.
Nutrition: In order to treat and prevent malnutrition, WFP is providing specialized nutritious food to vulnerable people including children under 5, and pregnant women and nursing mothers.
School meals: WFP provides meals in schools in several regions of the country. The school feeding programme stimulates local agricultural production, improves pupils’ concentration and boosts enrolment and attendance.
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS): The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service provides aid workers, donors and diplomatic missions with safe, flexible, efficient and cost-effective air transportation to locations across a country the same size as western Europe. UNHAS also enables access to Ebola-affected areas for the entire response community.
Support to humanitarian coordination: WFP leads on logistics in the coordination of the humanitarian response in the DRC. Along with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) WFP also co-leads the coordination of food security activities.

Publications

In focus

Your neighbor is your brother- agricultural stability in a war-torn country

“Making bread feeds my family every day”

Rosette, an everyday heroine in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Helping contain Ebola contagion

Dr Roger Saki, an Ebola survivor

From agriculture to resilience building: developing potential in the DRC

Cash distributions are bringing dignity and hope